Enable Active Directory Recycle Bin in Server 2012

In Windows Server 2008 R2, We had a new, and very welcome feature added into our administrative tool bag. The Active Director Recycle Bin allowed us to bring back deleted objects from Active Directory without loosing any property of that object. Turning it on was an issue. Below is how you turn on the AD Recycle Bin in a 2008 R2 forest with a domain named. MCTNet.com.

1. Click Start, click Administrative Tools, right-click Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell, and then click Run as administrator.

2. At the Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

For this example, my domain is MCTNet.com.

Enable-ADOptionalFeature –Identity ‘CN=Recycle Bin Feature,CN=Optional Features,CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=MCTNet,DC=COM’ –Scope ForestOrConfigurationSet –Target ‘MCTNet.com’

With Server 2012, you now can now turn on the AD Recycle Bin in the GUI.

On a 2012 Domain Controller, open Server Manager.
Click Tools
Click Active Directory Administrative Center.
Right click the name of your domain (Contoso in this case) and select Enable Recycle Bin…

Notice that this is a one way operation just like in Server 2008 R2.

Click Yes.

Your AD Recycle bin will be fully active once all the Domain Controllers have been notified.

Comments

How to list all the AD LDS instances on a server

AD LDS allows you to provide directory services to applications that are free of the confines of Active Directory. To list all the AD LDS instances on a server, follow this procedure: Log into the server in question Open a command prompt. Type dsdbutil and press Enter Type List Instances and press Enter . You will receive a list of the instance name, both the LDAP and SSL port numbers, the location of the database, and its status.

How to run GPResult on a remote client with PowerShell

In the past, to run the GPResult command, you would need to either physically visit this client, have the user do it, or use and RDP connection. In all cases, this will disrupt the user. First, you need PowerShell remoting enabled on the target machine. You can do this via Group Policy . Open PowerShell and type this command. Invoke-Command –ScriptBlock {GPResult /r} –ComputerName <ComputerName> Replace <ComputerName> with the name of the target. Remember, the target needs to be online and accessible to you.

Error icon when creating a GPO Preference drive map

You may not have an error at all. Take a look at the drive mapping below. The red triangle is what threw us off. It is not an error. It is simply a color representation of the Replace option of the Action field in the properties of the drive mappings. Create action This give you a green triangle. The Create action creates a new mapped drive for users. Replace Action The Replace action gives you a red triangle. This action will delete and recreate mapped drives for users. The net result of the Replace action is to overwrite all existing settings associated with the mapped drive. If the drive mapping does not exist, then the Replace action creates a new drive mapping. Update Action The Update action will have a yellow triangle. Update will modify settings of an existing mapped drive for users. This action differs from Replace in that it only updates settings defined within the preference item. All other settings remain as configured on the mapped drive. If the

Jason Yoder, MCT

Search This Blog